THE fans may be stubbornly refusing to acknowledge it but Petr Cech is convinced Rafa Benitez has already made Chelsea the most improved team of 2012.

Last season's Champions League winners may still be a million miles from owner Roman Abramovich's vision of Barcelona in blue but clean sheets and 1-0 wins will always be sweet music to Cech's ears.

He should know, having shut out the opposition 187 times in eight-and-a-half seasons as Chelsea's No 1 goalkeeper, and the 30-year-old will rack up his 400th appearance for them at Everton tomorrow. No import has played as many times for the club.

Only 10 of those games have been under Benitez but Cech is adamant the man the supporters continue to revile has made a significant impact since succeeding Roberto Di Matteo, with the 1-0 win at Norwich on Boxing Day having moved them to within four points of second-placed Manchester City.

"We look better organised now, that is the difference," said Cech. "We were conceding so many goals - we were very open and suddenly we are defending as a team much better. That is the key because we were not defending well. Now we are back to our ways where we are difficult to score against."

It is difficult to argue otherwise. The Di Matteo era ended with a ragged performance against Juventus in Turin that effectively knocked them out of the Champions League and Cech had been poorly protected that night in a 3-0 defeat.

The dropping of Fernando Torres had been an attention-grabbing red herring on that occasion and Cech felt the same way about the 8-0 thrashing of Aston Villa that followed a 6-1 success over Nordsjaelland and a 5-1 win at Leeds in cup competitions.

Petr Cech is convinced Rafa Benitez has already made Chelsea the most improved team of 2012

The goals they scored were all very well but it is a miserly goals against column that makes champions.

"It is great to win a 1-0 game because it shows we were resilient and well-organised," he said. "And as well as that we were patient enough to score one goal and control the game until the end. This is a very good sign.

"It is never easy when you win 8-0 and suddenly everybody thinks, 'Ah, easy, another game'.

"You need the whole team to defend. We have really attackminded players and sometimes we were not making the right choices "You need the whole team to defend. We have really attackminded players and sometimes we were not making the right choices in terms of defensive transition.

"What has improved is that we are pressing the ball much better "What has improved is that we are pressing the ball much better so it gives us the time to reorganise. This is the most significant change."

Benitez was able to get his ideas across via a series of chats with his players.

"We talked about it and we had ideas for different moments which happen on the pitch," Cech said. "He also came to us with slightly different ideas of what we were doing on the pitch and so far it has been working. "Let's hope that this way will continue until the end of the season because so far we look much better in our defensive transition when we lose the ball and that is what makes the biggest change." The most obvious example of this has been switching David Luiz from centreback to one of the two defensive midfield slots and Cech was impressed by the Brazilian's display at Carrow Road.

"He is very good on the ball and being a central defender originally you can see how well he defends the space in front of the back four," said Cech. "He can be a shield." With Juan Mata in top form and Torres going into the Everton game on Sunday having scored seven goals in as many games, Chelsea appear to have recovered from the malaise that saw them finish sixth last season, 25 points adrift of champions City.

Even if all else fails they still have Cech as the last line of defence.